The tendency of some families to reuse certain favorite given names again and again can make genealogy especially interesting. Records are often fragmentary. Sorting them all out can be challenging.

But men are easier than women. Men at least have records and usually keep the same surname.

True, but when you discover you have five Jonathan Eatons and none of them bothered to add numbers to his name, it can be very frustrating.

But I'm getting there. I just wish the people working on the new Avery information would be a little more careful with the member connections, because I had Job, John, William, Ezekiel and Isaac all mixed together.

And then there's also the cute habit people had of writing down the same date. I've had a ton of birthdays, deaths and weddings dated January 1st of whatever year, and finally realized that whoever was writing in the church register (or in some cases rewriting it) just lumped everything together and gave it the same date.

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